subjoyn'd as So help me God according as what I affirm is true so where it is not express'd it is always understood to be meant and God call'd upon not onely as a Witness but an Avenger By swearing therefore by the Name of God we give an evident Testimony of our acknowledging him for such and particularly that he is True and Wise and Powerful This onely would be added what is evident from the nature of the thing it self That though an Oath be an Acknowledgment of those glorious Attributes before-mentioned yet it is not to be made but where the thing in controversie is not otherwise to be made out and the Knot is worthy of his untying And more than this I shall not need to say concerning Swearing by the Name of God because I must afterwards resume it when I come to entreat of the Third Commandment 4. Lastly As we acknowledge the Divine Majesty by Swearing by his Name so also by Vowing to him in whatsoever may be the proper Matter of it such as is the yielding Obedience to all his Commands in general or the performing of any particular one For as by so doing we acknowledge God to be conscious to our Resolutions and because Vows are always made upon condition of God's giving us some Boon that he is conscious also to our Wants so for the same Reason that he is able to supply them and deliver us either from our Fears or from our Dangers Which acknowledgment is so much the more valuable because Vows are seldom made but when Men are encompassed with the greatest Dangers and there is little hopes of escaping but by some signal Providence for he that in such cases vows any thing to God for his deliverance sheweth he looks upon him to be of an Almighty Power and that he can act not onely in concurrence with Natural Causes but without and against them But because the nature of Vows will also fall in more fitly afterwards when I come to entreat of the Third Commandment it shall suffice me to have observ'd That this is one way of acknowledging him whom we are requir'd to own for our God II. Of acknowledging God by yielding Obedience to his Commands I have spoken hitherto and particularly by yielding Obedience to such Commands as have a more immediate aspect upon himself It remains that we entreat of our presenting him with some outward Note or Sign of our Submission which is the second way of owning him with our Bodies For inasmuch as God hath commanded us to glorifie him with our Bodies as well as with our Souls inasmuch as external Reverence is the most immediate expression of it it follows that to own him for our God we are to add external Reverence to our Obedience and present him with our Respects as well as Submission to his Commands Now there are two sorts of Notes or Signs whereby we are to express our Reverence to the Divine Majesty 1. The former whereof are perform'd within the Body 2. The latter reaches to things without it 1. Of the former sort are all those humble postures of Body wherewith we find devout Men to have honour'd their Maker such as are in particular Kneeling or Falling down before him Bowing down the Head or uncovering it in fine the standing at a distance from the Place of his more especial Presence as we read the penitent Publican did or casting our pensive Eyes upon the ground All which as we find to have been us'd by Holy Men so if we consult the Scriptures not to have been without the Command of God for the use of some or other of them For thus when the Devil would have woo'd our Saviour by the proffer of the Kingdoms of the World so to fall down and worship him our Saviour not onely rejected the Motion but made him answer out of the Scriptures Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve In which place we do not onely find God claiming the Homage of our Service and Obedience but the paying also of our Respects in falling down and worshipping our Creator Neither let any Man say as there are those who are like enough to do it how little ground soever there be for such an Answer let not any Man I say make answer That by Worship in that place we are to understand an inward one For as that was not it the Devil ask'd but the falling down before him and consequently no way agreeable to such an Interpretation so the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies External Adoration and is accordingly by Hesychius explain'd by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or falling at ones Feet And though it be true that in the Original of the Old Testament from whence this Text is borrowed it be not Thou shalt worship but Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God which is an Act of inward Adoration yet inasmuch as what the Devil ask'd was the outward one and our Saviour himself in his citation of it apply'd it to that kind of Worship it is manifest we are to understand both the one and other Adoration our inward Fear and the outward Expressions of it But so that I may put this past all doubt God hath given us yet more clearly to understand in the Words of the next Commandment For forbidding in that the bowing down before an Image because he is a jealous God he thereby plainly sheweth that he challeng'd that Honour to himself the Worship of the outward as well as of the inward Man And indeed provided that this Reverence do not degenerate into a Theatrical one nor swallow up that inward regard which we ought especially to intend I know not how we can more approve our selves to him whom we pretend to adore than by making every Member some way contribute thereto For how grateful must our Service needs be when all that is within and without conspires to it and whilst the Tongue is doing its Devotions the Knee is bowing to the Divine Majesty or which was the Custom of the Jews and is still of all the Eastern Nations the whole Body in token of its and the Souls subjection lies prostrate upon the Ground Again What is there which may be thought to engage the Soul's Obedience that doth not in like manner concur to the Adoration of the other Is the Soul of God's creation So is the Body as being not onely formed by him in its Protoplast Adam but curiously wrought by God in that Womb that immediately conceiv'd it Is the Soul redeem'd by the Holy Jesus So also is the Body and shall be hereafter to much better purposes For ye are bought with a price saith the Apostle therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are so his Lastly Hath the Soul a share in the Graces of the Spirit So also hath the Body as is evident from the Prayer of the fore-nam'd Apostle where he not onely beseecheth God to sanctifie them wholly but
prayeth more particularly that their whole spirit and soul and body might be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ I conclude therefore and I think too with much greater force than the Psalmist does O come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our Maker For not onely is he our Maker as that holy Man suggests but our Redeemer and Sanctifier and that too of those very Bodies whose Reverence he requires 2. Of such outward Notes or Signs of Respect as terminate in the Body I have spoken hitherto and shewn our Obligation to them It remains only that we consider those to which though the Body is instrumental yet pass from thence to other things Such as is 1. The Building of Temples or Places of Worship to him whom we own for our God For though as St. Paul speaks God that made the world and all things therein seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth dwelleth not in temples made with hands neither is worshipped with mens hands as though he needed any thing yet as the Custom of the World with the Approbation of God himself hath in all times led Men to erect such publick Places to him so it was no more than decency and a respect to the Divine Majesty prompted them to the doing of For though under the Gospel especially any Place be proper for Divine Worship because by the Tenor of it we are oblig'd to have a greater regard to the Thing it self than to the Circumstances thereof yet inasmuch as a Set place was requisite to the performance of it that so all the Worshippers of the Divine Majesty might know whither to resort inasmuch as it was but suitable to the Greatness of God that that Place which was appointed for his Publick Worship should be set apart from all common Uses lastly inasmuch as the appropriating of that Place to it was apt to imprint a Reverence of the Divine Majesty in those that resorted thither for these Reasons I say it seemed but requisite that he should have a Temple erected to him apart from the Places of more Common Uses And accordingly as before the Law they had their Altars and under the Law the Tabernacle that famous Temple at Jerusalem with Synagogues in their several Towns and Villages so it will be no hard matter to discern the like Places of Divine Worship in the first beginnings of Christianity As is evident from that known Passage of St. Paul to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 11.22 What have you not houses to eat and to drink in or despise ye the Church of God and shame them that have not For not onely speaking before of their coming together into one place but opposing the Church of God not to other Assemblies but to their own Houses and Places of abode he plainly sheweth his meaning to be not of the Assemblies themselves but of the Places wherein they conven'd And accordingly as Mr. Mede hath shewn * Churches that is Appropriate Places for Christian Worship that there were such Places in the following Ages and before the Emperours were Christians so he hath return'd a very satisfactory Answer to what is objected out of some ancient Writers concerning the Christians not having any Temples to wit That they meant Temples in the Heathen sense that is to say wherein the Deity was enclos'd as the Heathens to whom they thus answer'd suppos'd their own to be However it be there is reason enough in Nature for setting apart a certain Place for the Solemn Worship of God And accordingly when the Church had rest from Persecutions such Places were every where erected to him and the Christians declared their owning of the Lord for their God by it All that I shall add concerning this Head is that of Sir Edwin Sandys in his most excellent Piece entituled Europae Speculum That though the Ornaments of such places ought to be rather grave than pompous yet it could never sink into his heart that the Allowance for furnishing them out should be measur'd by the scant Rule of meer Necessity a proportion so low that Nature it self hath gone beyond it even in the most ignoble Creatures or that God had enrich'd this lower World with such wonderful variety of things beautiful and glorious that they might serve onely to the pampering of mortal Man in his Pride and that to the Service of the High Creator Lord and Giver the outward Glory of whose higher Palace may appear by the very Lamps which we see so far off burning so gloriously in it onely the simpler baser cheaper less noble less beautiful and less glorious things should be employ'd especially seeing even as in Princes Courts so in the Service of God also this outward State and Glory being well dispos'd doth engender quicken encrease and nourish the inward Reverence and respectful Devotion which is due unto so Sovereign a Majesty which those whom the use thereof cannot perswade would easily by the want of it be forc'd to confess Neither will it suffice to say as perhaps it may be by some Persons That that Cost might with much more advantage be employ'd upon the Poor those Living Temples of the Holy Ghost for though it be not to be deny'd that those ought more especially to be considered yet as it would be inquir'd Whether for the purposes of Charity a deduction might not be made from the Ornaments of our own Houses if our Estates cannot reach to the supplying of them both so also Whether the House of God ought not in this case to have the precedence of our own especially when God himself did sometime ask Whether it were time for the Israelites to dwell in cieled houses when his lay waste Hag. 1.4 2. But beside the Dedicating of Temples to his Honour whom we are commanded to own for our God it is no less requisite to that purpose that Solemn Times be set apart for the Publick Worship of God and that when they are so they should be as Religiously observ'd For as it may seem but a just Tribute to allot him a Portion of our Time from whom we have the Grant of the Whole so being so set apart it is but reasonable it should be appropriated to his Service and not as it too often is profaned by our own he that honoureth any Person naturally paying a Regard to whatsoever hath a relation to him But because this will fall in more seasonably when we come to entreat of the Fourth Commandment I will quit the prosecution of it at present and descend to a 3. Third Note of Respect which is the setting apart a sort of Men to wait at his Altar and perform the Publick Exercises of Religion nothing making any Person or Thing more cheap and vile than laying open the Offices that relate to it to the will of every Man that shall have the hardiness to invade them And accordingly as before the Law the Elder of the Family was
affirmed to be made by him but he himself for that reason styled the Lord of heaven and earth that is to say for so both the term of heaven and earth and the procedure of that argument shew the Lord of all the world and of all things therein contained PART II. That to have the One true God for our God is to owne him as such both in Soul and Body and in all the faculties and powers of each An account of what acknowledgment is due to God from the Soul and particularly from that great faculty thereof the Vnderstanding Which is shewn to consist first in a right apprehension of his Nature and Attributes secondly in a serious and frequent reflection on them and thirdly in a firm belief of what he affirmeth An enquiry thereupon into the just object of Faith the Congruity or rather essentiality thereof to the Oeconomy of the Gospel and how we owne God for our God by it HAving given you an account in the foregoing discourse of the Nature and Attributes of God together with the infiniteness thereof as also shewn that to have him for our God is no other than to owne him as such it remains only that we enquire how that is to be done and what respect is due unto him as a God For the resolution whereof 1. The first thing I shall return is that we are to owne him both in the inward and outward man For beside that Soul and Body are equally his by right of creation preservation and redemption and consequently an acknowledgement to be made by each we are expresly required by S. Paul to glorifie God in our body and in our spirit which are his 1 Cor. 6.20 But from hence it will follow 2. That we are to owne him for our God in all the faculties and powers both of the one and the other Which is farther confirmed as to the Soul especially by Gods requiring us to love him with all our heart and soul and might Deut. 6.5 Neither let any man say that this concerns only the passion of love and therefore not to be extended to other expresses of it For as we are elsewhere required to fear and trust in the same God which shews that the other are not excluded our Saviour assuring us as he doth * Mat. 22.27 c. that upon that great Commandment hangs all the Law and the Prophets as to our duty to our Maker it is evident it was intended to comprehend all other ways and means whereby we are in a capacity to honour him The only remaining difficulty is what acknowledgment each faculty is to make which accordingly I come now to consider 1. To begin with the Soul because the chief seat of piety and all other vertues and because God professeth especially to require it Where following the usual division of its faculties I will enquire 1. What is due to God from our understanding 2. What is due unto him from our wills and 3. And lastly what is due unto him from our affections 1. Now to owne God in our Vnderstandings which is the first of the faculties before remembred implieth in it these three thing 1. A right apprehension of his Nature and Attributes 2. A serious and frequent reflection on them and 3. And lastly a firm belief of what he affirms 1. Of the first of these there cannot be the least doubt that it is required of us towards the owning him for our God For beside that that is one of the prime acts of our Understanding and therefore to pay God its acknowledgment the neglect thereof casts us unavoidably upon that errour against which this first Commandment was principally intended to fail in our apprehension of God being not to own the nature of God but a fancy and imagination of our own And accordingly as S. Paul stuck not to tell the Athenians that they ought not to think the Godhead was like unto Gold or Silver or stone graven by art and mans device Act. 17.29 So he charges upon the heathen in general the vanity of their imaginations concerning him and which is more makes that the ground of Gods giving them over to those abominable crimes into which they fell Rom. 1.29 Taking it therefore for granted as we very well may that we ought to have a right apprehension of Gods nature and Attributes nothing remains to be enquired into but what that apprehension is from what measures it is to be taken and what is to be done by us toward the attaining and preserving of it Of the two former of these I have discoursed already in the foregoing discourse and must therefore remand you thither for your satisfaction it shall content me and may you to insist upon the last and shew what is to be done by us toward the attaining or preserving it And here very opportunely comes in that which is generally recommended by the Pythagoreans toward the attaining of Philosophical knowledge even the purifying our minds from all those earthly and sensual affections to which we are so fatally inclined For our understandings being apt to judge of things not according as they are in themselves but as they best suit with our corrupt affections till the mind be well purged from these it is impossible we should entertain any apprehensions of God which are not some way or other vitiated by them And accordingly as some of the Heathen because led thereto by their own necessities and appetites have been so stupid as to think the immortal Gods did eat and drink like us so others so depraved in their conceptions as to believe them tainted with the lusts of humane nature to have the same sinful passions and affections with themselves Witness their reporting them to descend from heaven to enjoy female beauties to maintain animosities among themselves and espouse those of men their making some of them the Patrons of fraud and cousenage and others again of intemperance and debauchery their appointing a third sort to preside over the Amours of men and both to kindle and maintain their loose and sometimes unnatural flames Of all which misapprehensions the great if not only cause was the passion they themselves had for them and that esteem and value they were wont to set upon them the Heathen no less fondly than impiously conceiting because these things gratifyed their own corrupt inclinations that they afforded the same gusto to the powers above and were the object of their affections and desires Forasmuch therefore as the minds of men are so apt to be debauched by their corrupt affections it is but necessary towards a right apprehension of God that our hearts should be first purged from them and we become if not wholly spiritual yet less sensual in our desires Now though that may seem a hard task to effect as I doubt not it may prove so at the first to those who have been accustomed to indulge them yet the difficulty will be much diminished and in fine wholly
occasion to think that under those Images some Evil Spirits did sometime lurk or at least were believ'd so to do by their Heathen Worshippers But as it follows not from thence That the Heathen thought their Images to be animated by them and like Soul and Body in Man to make up one Person so the meer lurking of Evil Spirits in the Idols they ador'd will make no material difference between the Idolatry of the Heathen and the Christian the Heathen as well as the Christian Idolater passing his Worship through the Image to that Deity he believ'd to lurk in it My second Argument against the Worshipping of God by an Image shall be taken from the Crime of the Israelites in the matter of the Calves as well that which Aaron made in the absence of Moses as those which Jeroboam set up in Dan and Bethel For if each of these were Idolatry as there is no doubt they were then is it such to worship the True God in an Image because they worshipp'd the True God in them That the Worship of the Calf which Aaron made was Idolatry is evident both from St. Stephen and St. Paul the former not onely terming it an Idol but affirming the Jews to have sacrific'd to it which is a known part of the Worship of the Almighty the latter calling it Idolatry in express terms 1 Cor. 10.7 for exhorting as he doth Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them as it is written The people sate down to eat and to drink and rose up to play he thereby plainly declares their feasting before the Calf for that was it he refers to as you may see Exod. 32.6 to be pure and perfect Idolatry Which place is so much the more to be remark'd because it doth not onely brand the Jews for it but caution us Christians against it and that too under the fear of the like displeasure lest any should say as some have done That this Precept concern'd the Jews onely and thereby leave us at liberty to transgress it For if as St. Paul afterwards infers that and other the Crimes there remembred were aveng'd upon the Israelites to deter us from the like Practices we may be sure it will be no less Sin in us than it was in them to commit the same Practices and particularly to pay the same Adoration to an Idol The onely difficulty therefore remaining is whether the Jews worship'd the true God in it which accordingly I come now to prove And here I shall alledge first that Saying of the Psalmist Psal 106.20 where speaking concerning this particular Calf and their worshipping of him he subjoyns Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that cateth grass For if their design in that Calf was to represent their Glory by it that is to say the God of Israel then was it their design also to do honour to the God of Israel and not either to the Image it self or some other Deity But let us come to the Story it self as it is delivered in Exodus and see whether it is possible to be any other Where the first thing that presents it self is that Speech of the Israelites immediately upon the making of it These be thy gods which brought thee out of the land of Egypt Exod. 32.4 For as it was impossible for the Jews to think the Calf it self brought them up which was fram'd after their deliverance out of it so it would be equally hard to think they meant some of the Gods of Egypt to which Place they are said in their heart to return For how could they think the Gods of Egypt would so much favour those who had despis'd them and drown those that sacrificed to them Besides though it be true that it is express'd in the Plural Number which may somewhat favour the interpreting their Words of other Gods yet as that is not much to be wondred at because the Word Elohim is Plural so that it is to be understood of the One True God Nehemiah shews chap. 9. 18. where repeating that Passage concerning the Calf he bringeth them in saying not These be thy gods but This is thy God that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt As for their stiling the Calf their God or Gods 't is but an usual Metonymie whereby the Name of the Thing signified is given to the Sign as the Images of the Cherubim over the Mercy-seat are call'd the Cherubim and in like manner those of the Oxen and Lions in the Temple by theirs The same is yet more evident from that which followeth after in the Story when Aaron had built an Altar before the Calf For the Text tells us that he immediately made Proclamation To morrow is a feast to the Lord that is to say to the True God of Israel what we render Lord being the most peculiar Name of God and to which the Jews bear such a reverence that they will hardly venture to pronounce it Neither will it suffice to object as I find it is by some That the Psalmist where he speaks concerning this very Argument affirms That they forgat God their Saviour which had done great things in Egypt wondrous works in the land of Ham and terrible things by the Red-sea For as that is not of sufficient force against so many Arguments for their meaning the True God especially when the same Psalmist affirms That they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass so they might very well be said to forget God without altogether casting him off because forgetting or at least not remembring to observe that Commandment we are now upon and to the observation of which they had so many Obligations from his Goodness For thus Deut. 8.11 we find God bidding them beware that they forgat not the Lord in not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes which he had so often enjoyn'd them to observe Having thus shewn the Calf which Aaron made to have been intended for a Representation of the True God and consequently because their Worship of God in it was reputed Idolatry that therefore it is such to worship even the True God in an Image I come now to shew the same of the Calves set up by Jeroboam that is to say That they worshipp'd the True God in them and that that their Worship was Idolatry That they worshipp'd the True God in them is evident from the Proclamation Jeroboam made when he set up those his Golden Calves For it is saith he too much for you to go up to Jerusalem behold thy gods O Israel which brought thee out of the land of Egypt 1 Kings 12.28 For as it would have been a vain attempt in Jeroboam to take them off altogether from the Service of that God to whom they had been so long devoted so his Words shew very apparently that his Design was rather to change the Place and Manner than the Object of their Worship because assigning for the
repent to become as righteous as those others were whom he there stiles so to make their righteousness exceed those others as he doth elsewhere * See the Sermon on the Mount insinuate to be chaste above their measure to abstain from anger as well as murder lastly to suffer injuries as well as do none and be contented not only with that which was their own but with the parting with it It being not his intention to destroy the Law and the Prophets those great measures of piety and justice but rather to confirm and add to them But not to stay any longer in the entrance to this discourse when there are so many weighty things which call for our regard and proof I shall without more ado proceed to shew I. That our Saviour came not to destroy but to confirm the Law of Moses and particularly that of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments II. That he came not to destroy that Law but to fulfill and add to it I. For the evidencing the former whereof I will begin with such precepts of it as were ceremonial and which because such have the least appearance of having been confirmed by him And here not to insist upon the agreeableness of our Saviours life to them because the question is not concerning his life but doctrine nor yet to stand to shew that that law did rather die of it self than was destroy'd by him because the question is whether or no and in what measure he confirm'd it I shall observe first of all that that which was mainly design'd in the several precepts of that law even the pure and pious veneration of God was confirm'd and establish'd by our Saviour As will appear past all contradiction from the Sermon on the Mount and other our Saviours discourses I say that which was mainly designed in them for that the pure and pious veneration of God was principally intended in them is acknowledg'd by one of the greatest Authority among the Jews even Maimonides * Maim Mer. Nev. part 3. c. 32. pag. 435. and is evident from the words of the Prophet Jeremy c. 7.21 22 23. For thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God Israel Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices and eat flesh for I spake not unto your Fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices But this thing commanded I them saying Obey my voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my people The meaning of which words is not that God gave the Jews no commandment at all concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices for he injoin'd that of the Paschal Lamb the very night they went out of Egypt and many other such like afterwards but that the principal thing requir'd by him was their piety and obedience and that he injoyn'd sacrifices and such like only as instances of obedience and figures of substantial and real piety And hence Gods insisting so much upon the circumcision of the heart even where the circumcision of the flesh was not wanting 3 upon the purity of the Soul as well as the cleanness of the body his preferring a broken heart before all burnt offerings and sacrifices his accounting of it as the only acceptable one for thou desirest not sacrifice else would I give it thou delightest not in burnt offering The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Psa 51.16 17 I observe secondly that as our Saviour did confirm that which was principally design'd by God even in the law of a carnal commandment so he did also retain many of its ceremonies and usances and accommodated them to his own purpose I instance in both the Sacraments and Imposition of hands The latter whereof as it was us'd by the Apostles in their Ordinations who no doubt did what they did by commission or approbation from Christ so was it borrowed from the Jews whose Leader Moses consecrated to succeed him by this ceremony of Laying on of hands For thus we are told Num. 27.23 that after God had given Moses order for the consecrating of his successour he laid his hands on Joshua and gave him a charge as the Lord commanded by the hands of Moses The case is the same in both the Sacraments as we learn from the Jewish writers the Jewish women and their proselytes of both sexes being enter'd into covenant with God by the same rite of Baptism with us * Selden de Jure Nat. Gent. c. li. 2. c. 2. and having also a ceremony of distributing bread and wine upon their solemn feasts ‖ Paulus Fagius comment in Deut. 8. agreeably to that of ours in the Lords Supper For thus saith Paulus Fagius the father of the family among the Jews taking a cup of wine in his right hand and praying over it this prayer Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the world who createst the fruit of the vine tastes of it himself and then gives it to all the guests And in like manner afterwards bread over which when he hath us'd this prayer Blessed be thou O Lord our God who bringest bread out of the earth he first eats a little of it himself and then gives a piece of it to each of the guests Indeed the foresaid Author relates this latter as the custom of the modern Jews but that it was also of the more Ancient is probable from our Saviours blessing and distributing a cup of wine among his disciples before that of the holy Sacrament adding thereto that he would not drink of the fruit of the vine which is the phrase that is us'd in the forementioned prayer of the Jews till the Kingdom of God should come Luke 22.17 18. I have one thing more to add in confirmation of the former ceremony which we learn from * Iren. adv haeres li. 4. c. 32. sect 4. Justin Mart. in Dial. cum Tryph. p. 260. edit Paris Irenaeus and other the ancient Fathers To wit that the bread and wine which was consecrated into the Sacrament of our Saviours passion was also offer'd to God agreeably to our Saviours precept and example by way of thanksgiving for those creatures themselves Which makes it more than probable that the forementioned custome was both of ancient date among the Jews and transcribed by our Saviour in the institution of his holy Supper If then he did not only confirm that which was principally design'd but retain'd many of the usances of the Jewish law he ought in reason not to be look'd upon as an enemy to it but rather as he himself saith of himself as one who came not to destroy but to fulfil it From the Ceremonial Law pass we to the Moral the principal thing intended by our Saviour as will appear if we consider what he both premiseth and subjoineth to his assurance of confirming the Law and the several precepts he
to them for being the end doth depend upon the means and either follows or follows not according as they are made use of or omitted he that commands any end must necessarily be thought to command the means as on the other side he that forbids the end to forbid the other Thus forasmuch as drunkenness leads to lust and immoderate anger to murther were there no other Precepts to make them unlawful those of Murther and Adultery would because intemperance and immoderate anger naturally lead to them 5. For to enumerate more particulars would perhaps serve rather to forestall the ensuing discourse than to clear our way to it Whatsoever either the Old or New Testament proposeth concerning piety and vertue as it may fairly enough be reduced to some Precept or other of the Decalogue as will appear when we come to discuss them so considering it as our Catechism doth as an abstract of all moral duties it will be necessary to take that course in the explication of it 6. Lastly for though matter of duty be the principal thing here intended yet that duty hath promises annexed to it Whatsoever is here annexed by way of promise though more peculiarly concerning the Jews doth yet appertain to us also For being whatsoever was written aforetime was written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 being the Author to the Hebrews applies that promise to all Christians which was spoken particularly to Joshua and upon a particular occasion Heb. 13.5 it is much more reasonable to believe those promises to belong to us which are annexed to the Ten Commandments because they are no less our duty than those to whom they were first given And therefore as S. Paul when to shew the equity of Christian children's obedience to parents alledged the words of the fifth Commandment Ephe. 6.2 so he forgot not to add the promise annexed of its being well with us and living long upon the earth all which had been very impertinent if the promise as well as duty had not been our concernment as well as the Jews Allowance only would be made for the difference there is between the Law and the Gospel as to temporal promises but what that difference is and what allowance ought to be made for it will fall in more seasonably when I come to intreat of the fifth Commandment to which therefore I shall reserve the distinct handling of it Having thus prepared my way to the explication of the Ten Commandments by shewing the nature and obligation of the divine Laws and particularly of this with the measure whereby we are to proceed in the explication of them it remains that we descend to the Commandments themselves and consider the several duties that are wrapped up in them But because the Law-giver himself before he proceeds to the several Precepts of the Decalogue labours to stir up the Israelites to yield obedience to them by the consideration of that great mercy of Gods toward them in bringing them out of the Land of Egypt I will for a conclusion of this discourse shew what like tyes he hath upon us to the performance of the same duties And here in the first place it is not to be forgotten because that is the first root and foundation of all our obligation to him that he who exacts our obedience is he that made us he from whom we receive our life and breath and all things conducing to the support of it For as it is but reasonable in it self that God should exact the obedience of those who are made and sustained by him so it is no less reasonable that we should pay him that obedience who receive so great a favour from him But not to insist upon so remote an obligation who have so many that are much more near and pressing to us Christians consider we in the second place that he who immediately bound this Law upon us hath bought us with his most precious blood An argument I the rather insist upon because it carries with it an exact correspondency to that mercy which God made use of to perswade his own people to obedience For as the deliverance of the Jews out of Egypt was a deliverance from a cruel bondage and such as neither before nor since any Nation groaned under so our redemption by Christ was a deliverance from a more cruel bondage because from a spiritual one We were in bondage to our own hearts lusts we were in bondage to Satan and his instruments a Master who after all our toil would have paid us no other wages than death and an eternal separation from God Again whereas the Jewish Law-giver delivered them from their bondage by the bloud of the Paschal Lamb and of their enemies he who bound the same Law upon us purchased us not indeed by the bloud of Lambs or of other men but which is much more considerable by his own Now if a deliverance out of Egypt were so strong an obligation to obedience that God himself should lay the stress of the whole Law of Moses on it how great a one may we suppose it to be to be delivered from sin and Satan and death and that too by the bloud of him by whom that Law was imposed on us Certainly if any redemption be a just incentive to obedience a redemption from such a servitude and in such a manner must be and we who are so bought obliged to glorisie God both in our bodies and in our spirits which are his We are not as yet at an end of the obligations the divine goodness hath laid upon us to yield obedience to these his Laws For whereas God though he delivered the Jess from their Egyptian bondage yet brought them into another from a servitude in making bricks to a servitude in observing many unprofitable Rites and Ceremonies our Law-giver on the contrary hath delivered us from the bondage of corruption to the glorious liberty of the Sons of God that is to say for what Son is there that is not under obedience to the obedience of Sons to a service which is both easy and ingenuous We are not now as they under a yoke of ceremonial rites and ordinances we are not treated as slaves nor indeed as servants what becomes a Son to do and a Father to exact what is just and equitable and ingenuous that and that alone is the rule of our obedience Which yet neither doth he so exact as to cast us off for every transgression of it for every weak or indeed wilful deviation from it but after the manner of tender Fathers passeth by our lesser errours and upon our repentance and amendment receives us into favour after grosser ones Lastly as our Law-giver admits us to an ingenuous and easy service as he is moreover gracious and merciful in the exacting of it so he furnisheth us with ability to perform all those things which he doth so mercifully exact For of his
Worship so there is not any just fear of falling into that Will-worship which St. Paul cautioneth his Colossians against For beside that he cannot in any Propriety of Speech be said to add to the Worship of God who represents not what he so adds in the same condition with it but onely as subservient to it so which shews it yet farther to be no Will-worship he doth what he doth by vertue of the Divine Command even of that and other such like which prescribe That in the Worship of God all things be done decently and in order If therefore what is so added be grounded upon a Divine Command it is no longer the result of the Wills of Men at least as distinct from that of God but a just compliance with his which is a Will-worship which I hope none of us but will think our selves obliged to perform Having thus shewn at large not onely that our Worship ought to be suited to the Nature of God but also agreeable to his Commands it remains onely for the compleating of our Design that we instance in one or two Commandments by which our Worship is especially to be regulated Whereof the first that I shall assign and let that pass for 3. My third Rule is The Worshipping of God in Christ For that so we are to do God hath expresly declared by that Son of his in whom he hath commanded us to adore him Is Faith or Trust a part of Divine Worship Our Saviour's Merits are to be the ground of it there being no other Name as the Apostle speaks whereby we can be saved Is Hope a part of Divine Worship The same Jesus is to be the ground of that also as by whom alone we are obliged to expect the Object of it Is Prayer a part of Divine Worship That also is to pass by him as being to ask what we do in his name and for his sake Is Thanksgiving a part of Divine Worship We are to give thanks unto God and the Father by him Col. 3.17 In fine Whatsoever we do in relation to God or even our selves is to be done with reference to him as God's Instrument both in Governing and Redeeming us For wherefore else should God no less than twice declare from Heaven That he was the Person in whom he was well pleased and once of that twice moreover oblige his Disciples upon that account to hear him but to let us know as St. Paul speaks that whatsoever we do in word or deed we should do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus That we should do what we do in obedience to his Commands and with respect to that Authority which God vested in him That we should do what we do with respect to his Example and have an eye to his most holy Life as well as most excellent Precepts That we should do what we do with respect to the great Obligations he hath laid upon us by humbling himself to the death even the death of the cross for us That we should do what we do in confidence of his Assistance and not relie upon the strength of Nature or any Moral Acquisitions lastly That we should do what we do in confidence of Acceptance in and through the Merits of his Passion For as each of these is sometime or other the meaning of acting in his Name and therefore not lightly to be excluded so we have great reason to believe them all included in that fore-mentioned Text because all tending to his Honour and elsewhere expresly requir'd of us to make our Worship acceptable 4. That to Worship after a due manner we are to worship him in Christ hath been already declar'd together with the full Importance of such a Worship The next and indeed onely thing that I shall need to subjoyn is That we worship him in Spirit and in Truth according as was before insinuated For the evidencing whereof though it might suffice to tell you That this if any is the Affirmative part of the Precept because the Negative strikes at the worshipping of him by a corporeal and sensible Representation yet because it is a matter of importance and indeed one of the great Duties of the Gospel I shall allot it a more full Probation In order whereunto I shall lay for my Ground-work that known Saying of our Saviour which establisheth such a Worship with the proper Ground of it God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth Joh. 4.24 Now there are two Senses wherein those Words are to be consider'd and which therefore are to be distinctly handled 1. A Natural or Moral Sense And 2. An Evangelical one The former because grounded upon a Natural and Eternal Reason The latter because as I shall afterwards shew the Precept of Worshipping God in Spirit is oppos'd to that Worship which was in use under the Law 1. To begin with the former Sense even that which I call the Natural because grounded upon a Natural Reason where again I shall consider the Reason upon which it stands and then the due Importance of it For the Reason upon which it stands it will cost us little pains to evidence it to be a just Foundation of such a Worship For inasmuch as all things naturally are most affected with such Things and Operations as come nearest to their own Nature it must needs be that if God be a Spirit they who would serve him acceptably must present him with such a Worship as approacheth nearest to his own spiritual Nature The onely thing worthy our inquiry is What the Importance of such a Worship is which therefore I come now to resolve In order whereunto the first thing that I shall offer is That it is not meant to exclude wholly the Service of the Body For beside that That is God's by right of Creation and Preservation yea by all other ways by which the Soul is and consequently to pay God an Acknowledgment of its own Subjection and Obedience it is the distinct Affirmation of St. Paul That we are to glorifie God with our Bodies and with our Spirits that are his I observe secondly That as the Worshipping God in Spirit is not to be understood to exclude wholly the Worshipping him with our Bodies so neither to exclude all Worshipping him by Rites and Ceremonies For as the Christian Religion it self is not without such Rites even of God's own appointment witness the Sacrament of our Initiation into it and that other of our Continuance in it so it is much more evident that under the Law a great part of the Worship of God consisted in such Rites and Ceremonies But so it could not have done had a spiritual Worship excluded all worshipping him by Rites and Ceremonies because God was no less a Spirit under the Law than under the Gospel and therefore no less so to be ador'd It remaineth therefore That by worshipping God in Spirit we understand first of all the worshipping him with our